Mercantile Characters, Hack-n-Slash alternatives?

Posted by Tuco on 02/11

Folks,
I want to run a character who doesn't have to kill things
to level. Charity says there is no realistic way to do this,
and perhaps there is not. I made a bunch of suggestions re
this years ago, but it's worth another note (and your thoughts).
There are so many "craft" skills going to waste, it's sad.
And who the hell (besides me) routinely does the China Tea trade
for fun? There is so much potential in these areas that is
being wasted. LegendMud has always been known for it's depth; why
not expand this vision?
Specific ideas for making a merchant a viable character class:
1. Mercantile quests (like the tea trade) pay in a special coin
for those with merchant skill, which can be traded in for levels
much like xp for fighters.
2. Tanner, weaver, skinner, etc all facilitate the making of decent
alternative gear for various slots for newbies, mid-level, and even
experts, based upon basic, advanced or expert tailor.
3. Expert tailor, etc, can mend gear exactly the same as TrueForm,
and master forge can repair all weapons, and make comprable weapons.
4. The merchant has a means of "customizing" the things created,
in effect, creating a minor string for X hours of labor, much
like the make staff skill used to do. (does it still?)
5. Creation of excellent (98% +) items earns experience.
etc., etc. You get the basic jist. Thoughts?
Tuco Bendedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez (rat aura)

From: Beam
Tuesday, February 08, 01:14PM
I think this could be done, a rp class/merchant class, and very
interesting too. The thing is, if they don't want to kill, then they
probably shouldn't start killing stuff when they get high level
either.
So just remove the kill command from this class. Who cares if they
get to 50 or not, if they can't kill stuff. It could say something
like this just goes against your nature. All harmful skills and
spells would be unusable by them, but they could be master healers
and good mages too, think this deserves some thought.

From: Tirasala
Tuesday, February 08, 06:30PM
This mercantile class sounds like a good idea. However, i don't
think that the kill command should be removed for them. Everyone is
able to defend themselves, or try anyway. A merchant should just
have such poor fighting skills that trying to kill things would
be a waste of time. The best way I can see to do this is to have
high mind, spirit, and perception requirements for all the good
mercantile skills. We don't want to start putting classes into the
MUD, but having low strenght, dexterity, and constitution would encourage
merchants to stick with buying and selling.
While i was writing that, i just had a rather unusual idea. Now that we'v
we have houses, why not have shops? I'm thinking a mob that doesn't
move out of your house that will sell things that you give to him. Of
course, you could just auction everything off, but it would be kinda neat
to have people running their own shops. I would love to see a price
war in England over carrots, cause sometimes all i have is one coin!
Probably not very feasible, but who knows?
Tirasala, Captain of the Dred Pyrats, Lord of the Oshan See

From: Ea!
Tuesday, February 08, 06:53PM
Allowing players to play characters who are merchants is something that
we've been wanting to make viable for a long time. I'm not sure whether
you'll ever be able to make it from level 1 to 50 without ever entering
combat, but we certainly want to allow players to run shops, create
equiptment, and so forth. A lot of thought and planning has gone into
how to allow players to make equiptment that's worth having and using
at all levels -- including high levels. Most of the work that's happened
has been in preperation for skill trees -- I know Rufus coded at least
90% of the new forge skill and last time I looked at it, it was pretty
useful. We've also got a lot of skills in the works that are for
customizing your items -- both in appearance and in ability.
I know that this message amounts to saying "wait until skill trees",
which isn't really a fair thing to say, but it's the best answer I've
got.
We also want to work on making it so that players can buy rooms in
houses that are specifically designed as shops -- but that's not even
out of the design stage yet, it's on hold waiting on other projects.
-Ea!

From: Manticore
Tuesday, February 08, 07:56PM
Just an idea to throw at merchant 'class' chars and their items...
If an item made by them is to be useful yet not too overwhelmingly
unbalancing (either through ease of obtainment or the resulting
product) they should be 'timed' but not 'preservable.'
Armslore should tell how long of a life the item has left on it,
and those that have been used to their fullness could be renewed
by other chars with the skill to create the original product.
As much as i hate quests that are mud-timed, such as a certain
meteorite involving quest or a quest involving many odd tidbits from
all over the mud, i think those should be the basic idea for the
new improved forge skill if they were to produce things significantly
useful (i.e., forged items with stats of any kind).
Requiring houses and specific furniture would be one thing, and
requiring certain 'ingredients' that are either quest items or
hard-to-get for the production of some high quality items would be
another. The clues for these could be spread among the skill teachers
for the new forge skill -- when they teach you the skill, they'd point
to some interesting combinations, you make the combination, bring it
to the mob, the mob points you to another and gives you xp :p
Personally, i'd hate to see failures that would force chars to re-acquire
the ingredients (we don't need more brew/make staff-like failure rates,
much less mix potion), simply those that will say "you're too tired to
try this again today" perhaps (maybe like pick lock/pk timers?)
Anyway, my two cents

From: Mariachi
Tuesday, February 08, 10:22PM
This does sound interesting...
of course, it would be real cool if we could have all sorts of different
specialized professions, such as the merchant type, a successful bardic
type, a druid type who can tame animals, more than two types of mages,
martial artists, a monk-like thingie, and all manner of things, most
probably difficult but would be neat.
I been talking to a friend who plays ultima, her complaining that the
tailoring of armor there has been changed drastically to make it harder
like everything else they do there. It makes me
think hey i wish i could make useful items here and sell them. maybe somed
ay.
we'll see, right. raise a glass to skilltrees and sleep on it, see what
you believe in in the morning. i'm rambling. i'll stop.

From: Beam
Tuesday, February 08, 11:51PM
The main idea was I think, and the most interesting idea too, in
my opinion, was the option to not kill any mobs and level to 50.
Lets not be short sighted. Just because there was a type of char
or class that could level to 50 without killing would not mean
that any skill would have to be limited to this class.
They would have time, since they weren't warriors and fighters
to learn their skills at a much higher expertism than the rest of
the mud. Removing the ability to kill would be one option, making
it impossible for them to learn any fencing, swordsmanship or
arms training would be another. There would be many ways to do
it, and no, it would not ruin the mud to have it so that some
people could level up to 50 without killing a single mob. There
just needs to be some distinction between these types and the
rest of the mud, similiar to joining a monastery.
We could have a special healing class, that did just so spending
their entire life on the healing arts, and if they strayed from
this they could lose their entire power.
I guess what it comes down to is not many people are interested
in not killing mobs. Is that it?

From: Splerk
Wednesday, February 09, 02:18AM
-has a character that levelled from 1-49 without ever killing a
mob (except trans and quest mobs)- -thinks its not that hard-
SplERk!

From: Asterix
Friday, February 11, 02:55PM
Actually if the tea route was going to give xp,
what's going to stop a "merchant" from making aliases and macros, fly
himself and then start spamming all over? Restrictions to 1 a day?
As for making shopkeepers in houses, players could
then give items they wanted to keep to their shopkeepers and
lock the door to prevent visitors and thus save the rent?
but then, rent issue on houses has always been crazy